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Days like this, I miss the Jatman. The Jatman now has a head. But if you saw him go nuts against poor Bangladesh, you know, the heart is there – not quite the front desk but still the backend where the coding is done. And isn’t it the backend that calls the shots in such a cricketer?

who needs a HEAD, i play with my HEART

The way I see it, Jatman’s head usually short circuits with his heart in the first ten overs of a one-dayer. Put yourself in Jatman’s shoes – then put yourself in the company of fools, how long can you suffer them? If it’s easy enough to smash the bowler once, then the same must apply twice, thrice. It worked in guli cricket.

Often what happens is this – the fool, or the said bowler varies his length, but Jatman, such is his commitment to the heart, he must play that shot – he must muscle the ball over mid-off because there is a mid-off. Don’t you see that dismissal?

If you follow the Jatman, chances are, you can feel his maverick heart beat – and sense that very moment when his heart feels that itch to break. It is a beautiful moment, almost like knowing one’s own foibles. Yet how can you change what you are?

You change who you are – Jatman becomes Sehwag, fondly Viru, from the headless he becomes the headlines, man of the match, but then he says it -

He says, “Revenge match”. That is the heart speaking. Not the PR driven cricketer. He says something about everybody played well but not Sreesanth. Both are truths. Who speaks truths? Not the minds of cricketers that speak at such times – these are the headlines too, in the sports’ pages not the front pages that are reserved for Sachin, Yuvi, Bhajji.

Once again, Sehwag, fondly Viru, becomes what I like to know him as – Jatman. He is the heartscape of the wild, straight shooting badlands of Haryana and Delhi.

That by default the Jatman adopted Delhi and not Haryana, is part of the flawed process that keeps Jatman from being either Sehwag, fondly Viru or the Jatman for any consistent point of time.

But this is the least of it. You know about the Jatman’s love for Sachin – the sameness in play, the art of imitation, similar stature, and Sachin too agreed, didn’t he?

Wasn’t Sehwag, fondly Viru, Jatman’s 175, an exercise in Sachin? What about Sachin’s long cherished dream of the world cup? What will it make 3 of the greatest followers of Sachin do, what won’t they do?

Will they tap dance from one to the other – so when teams’ plan to tackle the long playing bunny, Sehwag, they will be up against the all heart, ten over nut, Jatman, and when they work against his short assaults, Viru will just walk away singing his bhajans.

And somewhere in between all this, if he conspires to be Sachin again...